Page printing telegraph receivers



PAGE PRINTING TELEGRAPH RECEIVERS Filed Feb. 2, 1960 '7 Sheets-Sheet l FIG.1

lnvenlor JJIANDLEY Aggnt March 13, 1962 J. HANDLEY PAGE PRINTING TELEGRAPH RECEIVERS 7 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 2, 1960 FIG.2B.

Inventor J.HANDLEY Agent J. HANDLEY PAGE PRINTING TELEGRAPH RECEIVERS March 13, 1962 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Feb 2, 1960 FIG. 5.

Inventor, J.HANDLE! Agcnt March 13, 1962 J. HANDLEY PAGE PRINTING TELEGRAPH RECEIVERS 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Feb. 2, 1960 Invenlor J.HANDLEY \m mm mmmmmmmmlmummy J. HANDLEY 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 Inventor LEANDLEY Agent March 13, 1962 PAGE PRINTING TELEGRAPH RECEIVERS Filed Feb. 2, 1960 March 13, 1962 J. HANDLEY PAGE PRINTING TELEGRAPH RECEIVERS 7 Sheets-Sheep 6 Filed Feb. 2, 1960 ln venlor JJiANDLEY Agent '7 Sheets-Sheet '7 Filed Feb. 2, 1960 F IG].

United S tates tent 3,025,347 PAGE PRINTING TELEGRAPH RECEIVERS John Handley, Little Marland, Briar Hill, Purley, England Filed Feb. 2, 1960, Ser. No. 6,255 13 Claims. Cl. 178-25) This invention relates to page-printing telegraph receivers.

British Patent Specification No. 807,212 which was not published at the date hereof but has an earlier priority date describes and claims a printer comprising a series of spaced individually and independently operable printing means each adapted to print a single predetermined one of a set of symbols and means for effecting advancement of a record sheet by causing relative movement between the series of printing means and said sheet in the direction in which said series extends, operation of each of said printing means being effected whenever there is in register with such printing means an area of the record sheet on which there is to be inscribed the symbol said printing means is adapted to print.

The embodiment described in said specification is a printer for printing the output of a computer and is for printing the numerals to 9. Columns are printed on a page consisting of columns of 10 numerals each, there being 100 printing types. As the sheet is advanced each column is printed separately using the invention claimed. For this purpose a delay means (not described in detail) is interposed between the output from the computer and each printing means, each delay means being such as to delay printing until the space in which printing is to take place is opposite the printing means.

In the above specification there is no description of a type-printing telegraph receiver, i.e. a receiver which translates received code signals into characters to be printed.

British Patent No. 838,636, October 12, 1960 describes and claims recording apparatus comprising a series of equally spaced individually and independently operable recording means each adapted to record a single predetermined one of a set of symbol-s, each of said symbols being different, means for receiving successively signals representing symbols to be recorded, means for causing relative movement of a record sheet and the series of recording means in the direction in which said series extends by the distance between two adjacently spaced recording means for each signal received and means for operating in response to each said signal the recording means for the symbol represented by said symbol when the area of the sheet on which said symbol is to be recorded in its proper succession of received signals is opposite to the recording means for that symbol.

The invention described and claimed in the abovementioned British Patent is applied to a printing telegraph receiver printing on a tape.

There are considerable difiiculties in adapting the principles of either the above-mentioned patent or the above mentioned British patent to a page printing telegraph receiver as Will be explained hereinafter and it is one object of the present invention to overcome those difficulties.

It is another object of the present invention to provide largely mechanical means for carrying out the same principles and applying them to a page printing telegraph receiver.

In order to explain the principles of the above mentioned patent and patent application and the manner in which they are applied in the present invention it is convenient to refer to one of the embodiments described in British Patent No. 838,636. In that embodiment a row of type elements, each element representing a character to be printed (for example, a letter of the alphabet) is arranged above a tape which is traversed past the ele ments. A received signal combination is translated into a selection of the corresponding printing element but a delay device is interposed between the selection and the operation of the element according to the position of the element in the series of elements. Assume, for example, that the type elements representing letters of the alphabet are arranged in alphabetical order. For each signal received the tape is stepped but as the delay between the selection of a type element and printing by that depends upon the position of the desired character in the alphabetical succession, the characters are printed when the proper place for each in the record is opposite to the printing element for that character. The characters are thus printed in an order different from that received. it may be shown that for the word Printer no characters will have been printed when the last character R has been received. It is necessary therefore to continue stepping of the tape to enable all the characters stored in the various delay devices to be printed.

It follows that there are considerable difficulties in applying the above principles to a page printer since the record sheet will have been advanced to the end of a line of typing on the record before all the characters for that line have been printed.

Conventional page printing techniques cannot therefore be used to adapt the above-mentioned principles to a page printer.

The present invention overcomes the difficulty abovementioned by arranging the recording element in a helical line about a platen and by feeding a record sheet on to the platen so that one dimension on said sheet is parallel to said helical line. Printing then takes place in the same way as upon a tape supposed to be fed in a helical path beneath the helical row of recording means and printing can be effected in places on the record sheet which are effectively in different lines of typing on the sheet.

In order to take care to leave proper margins on the record sheet and to enable a line of typing to finish on the sheet before the normal end of the line is reached, provision is preferably made for inter-control, in a manner hereinafter described between the printer of the present invention and the transmitter sending signal combinations thereto.

The above-mentioned features and other features of this invention and the manner of attaining the desired objects will become more apparent and the invention itself Will be better understood by reference to the following description of one embodiment (and some minor modifications) of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a side elevation of the selecting and storage mechanism;

FIG. 2 ShOWS at A and B two sections through a hydraulic valve used in the printing telegraph receiver, said sections being taken in planes at right angles to one another;

FIG. 3 shows one means for operating the types used for printing;

FIG. 4 is a front elevation of the platen and type assembly with the associated gearing shown in section;

FIG. 5 is a view partly in side elevation and partly in section of the gearing used to move the platen endways for printing, traversing to the last line and returning the platen to the position in which a sheet of paper is to be loaded thereon;

FIG. 6 is a side elevation of the cams and rockers associated with the mechanism of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 7 and 8 show a mechanism for operating one of the hydraulic valves of FIG. 2 by means of an electromagnetic relay.

Referring to the drawings and first to FIGS. 1 and 6 these figures show the use of a selection apparatus to the operation of elements of a storage device for carrying out the present invention.

It is assumed that code combinations in a known sixunit teleprinter code are sent from a tape-controlled transmitter and received by six relays 1, two of which only are shown. Preferably all the elements of the code combination are sent simultaneously to the respective relays. The relays set corresponding code bars 2. A cam 3 (FIG. 6) then allows rocker 4 to move which in turn operates a rocker 5 (FIG. 1) to allow fingers 6 to be pulled by springs 7 on to the code bars 2. There is a finger 6 for each character to be selected and the selected finger is pulled into an aligned slot in the code bars 2, when released by a rocker arm 10. Each finger is mounted on a corresponding rocker 8.

The arrangement is duplicated so that there is a second set of six relays (two of which are shown at 20). The relays 20 operate code bars 21 and fingers 22 are allowed to move by these code bars, the cam 3 having duplicate operating portions and rockers 4 and 5 and rocker arms also being duplicated. The sets of relays 1 and 20 are caused to operate on alternate received code combinations and each finger 22 is mounted on the same rocker 8 as the corresponding finger 6.

The arrangement so far described is the same as that described in my above mentioned application.

In applying this section mechanism to the present invention each control rocker 8 carries a pecker 11. A rocker 10 which acts upon the selected finger 6 or 22 rotates the corresponding control rocker 8 in an anticlockwise direction as shown in FIG. 1 and so depresses pecker 11 carried by the rocker 8. The pecker 11 engages with a storage element 12 in the form of a pawl.

Pawls 12 are mounted on a disc fixed to a storage drum 13. There are fifty such discs, one for each of the peckers 11 and thus one for each character, numeral or symbol to be printed. Each disc carries fifty-four pawls 12.

The pawls 12 on each disk are pivotally mounted and held between two spring plates, one of which is indicated in FIG. 1 at 13A. These plates offer sufficient frictional resistance to hold the pawls in any position into which they are moved. A stop plate 16 between each pair of spring plates carries teeth 17 which limit the movement of the pawls.

The storage drum 13 carrying all the pawls is constantly rotating, so that a selected pecker 11 rotates one particular pawl depending upon the moment of operation of the pecker and that pawl is on a disc dependent upon the particular pecker operated and therefore upon the particular character represented by the received signal.

The storage drum 13 with the discs and pawl is rotated within a casing 15. Mounted on a helical line around the casing are fifty pairs of electrical contacts 14 as shown in FIG. 1. When the operated pawl 12 comes opposite one of the contacts 14 these contacts are operated by the pawl and so cause printing of the corresponding character in a manner hereinafter explained.

The storage drum 13 rotates in an anti-clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 1. It will be seen from FIG. 1 that a pawl 12 is operated by pecker 11 when that pawl has passed an aperture in the casing 15. Protruding through this aperture are teeth 18 on a gear 19 which is rotated rapidly in the opposite direction to that of drum 13, and is geared to drum 13 so that a tooth 18 engages any pawl 12 that has been previously set by pecker 11 and resets it to initial position to be ready for further operation.

As stated above there are fifty-four pawls on each disc, the excess of four pawls over the fifty being provided to fill the gap in the casing 15 in which the resetting gear teeth 18 act.

The storage drum 13 is rotated in synchronism Wit the movement of a record sheet on a platen past a helical line of printing means each corresponding to one of the contacts 14. When a pecker 11 is moved it operates a pawl on a disc corresponding to the character required to be printed. The particular pawl selected on the disc depends upon the position of the disc in its cycle of rotation at the moment of selection and thus depends upon the time position of the received code combination in the sequence of received combinations.

The delay between operation of a pawl by the pecker 11 and the operation of a contact 14 by the operated pawl depends upon the particular character in the order of characters to be printed. Thus, for the purposes of explanation, consider first the 26 characters representing letters of the alphabet. Let it be supposed that the record sheet on which printing is to take place advances along the line of printing in such manner that the space to be occupied by the first character to be printed advances so as to be first opposite the printing means for letter A and successively opposite printing means arranged in alphabetical order. The contacts 14 are arranged in a helical line so that the contact controlling the printing means for letter A is to be operated by a pawl 12 on the disc for letter A and the other contacts are arranged to be operated by pawls 12 on discs corresponding to the characters. The arrangement of contacts 14 on a helical line is such that the delay between selection of a pawl by pecker 11 and operation of the contact is proportional to the distance of the character represented by the pawl from the commencement of the alphabet.

If the first letter received be A then it will be printed after movement of the storage drum 13 through a distance occupied by one pawl and thus when the record sheet, on a platen rotated in isochronism with drum 13 is opposite the printing unit for A. If, however, the first letter received be Z then it will not be printed until the record sheet is opposite the printing unit for letter Z and this ensures that the letter Z is printed on the first space on the sheet. The printing of other letters may take place in an order other than that received but still in their proper place in the order of the message. Thus, suppose the message starts with the letters ZA. As pointed out above the letter Z will not be printed until after considerable delay but letter A will be printed after an ineonsiderable delay. As A is the second character received the space for this second character is opposite the printing means for letter A when printing takes place and letter Z will be printed in the space before letter A although it is printed subsequently.

A record sheet 30 (FIGS. 3 and 4) is wrapped round a platen 29, FIG. 4, for printing. The record sheet 30 is picked up and wrapped round the platen in a manner hereinafter described. As shown in FIG. 4 the record sheet 30 is placed on the platen 29 askew to the axis of the platen. Printing types 28 are arranged in a helical line around the platen and the record sheet 30 is wrapped round the platen so that the left hand edge thereof, is on a helical line parallel to the helical line of printing types 28. Thus printing takes place on a helical line which when the record sheet has been ejected from the platen lies along the usual line normal to the length of the record sheet.

The platen is fixed to a shaft which extends as shown at 34, FIG. 4, to one side of the position occupied by the platen and as shown at 35 to the other side of that position. The shaft extension 35 is driven from a constantly rotating shaft 40. A gear on shaft 40 drives a gear 41 and a ratchet wheel 42 fixed to the gear 41. Ratchet wheel 42 is engaged by a pawl 43 mounted on a plate 51 dogged to a gear 37 which engages a gear 33. As will be explained below the platen in addition to being rotated by gear 38 is traversed lengthways. As the edge of the paper is slightly askew, a slight additional rotation is given to the platen in order to keep the margin parallel to the edge of the paper. This slight additional rotation The record sheet 30 is the top sheet of a stack of sheets packed in a box 31 (FIG. 3) turned a little out of line with the platen roller .29. Suction is applied to the interior of the platen roller through a flexible tube 33, FIG. 4, and is applied to the top sheet of paper through the holes 42. This sheet is thus held to the platen roller.

The box 31 may be raised a little for this purpose and then dropped to allow this top sheet to be fed around the platen roller. The pawl '43 is then allowed to engage in the ratchet wheel 42 causing the shaft 53 to rotate, and this in its turn through a differential 39 and gear wheels 37 and 38 rotates shaft 35 (and with it the platen roller) to wrap the record sheet round the roller.

The platen roller is traversed to the left by shaft 34. The right hand gear of differential 39 is dogged into plate 51 and pinned to shaft 53 which drives gears 54 and 55. The latter gear drives a differential 56 (FIG.

A gear wheel 63 is force fitted on the hub on the left hand crown wheel of differential 56, while a gear 57 which is integral with the diiferential spider is free on this hub. Similarly gear 55 is force fitted onto the hub of the right hand crown wheel of differential 56.

The drive of the differential 56 is from shaft 53 through gears 54 and 55, this moves shaft 34 through gears 57, 58, a dog clutch 59 and a gear 60. Shaft 34 is a circular rack and carries the platen roller 29 slowly to the left as the shaft 34 is rotated. Shaft 65 is constantly rotating and tending to drive gear 60 in the reverse direction through a slipping clutch 69 but is prevented from doing so whilst dog clutch 59 is engaged.

When platen 29 has been advanced so that the commencement of the first line of printing is adjacent the first of the types 28, the pawl 43 is again withdrawn and roller 49 again drops into a recess in plate 51. A signal combination from the transmitter feeding the printer is then sent, a rocker 8 (FIG. 1) being provided to respond thereto and cause the pawl 43 to be restored into engagement with the ratchet 42 and the drive of the platen roller to be recommenced.

The embodiment being described is adapted to print on bank statements on which there may already be printed matter.

In order to ensure that new printing takes place on the proper line there is provided a type 28 positioned at the end of the row of types for printing a black rectangular mark as an end of line signal.

A lamp 61 (FIG. 3) is provided to shine a beam of light on to the paper. This beam is reflected therefrom onto a light sensitive cell (not shown).

The series of black spots printed at the end of each line on a form or sheet fed into the printer serves in conjunction with the lamp 61 and light sensitive cell to detect when the sheet has passed the last line of print so that printing takes place on a new line.

In addition to the arrangements above described for traversing the platen to a position to await a signal from the transmitter which signal will operate pawl 43, there is provided a shaft 64 ('FIG. 5) on which is mounted a clutch (not shown) similar to clutch 69. The shaft 64 tends to rotate, through this clutch a gear wheel 62 but this gear is restrained from rotating by a pawl (not shown).

When the paper has been fed into the machine and the platen has been advanced to the position at which printing can commence, any black spot previously printed on the sheet at the end of the first line will be under lamp 61. The cutting off of light from the photosensitive cell is caused to lift the pawl which restrains gear 62. Gear 62 is thereupon driven and drives the differential 56 and through it shaft 34 as previously described. At the end of every revolution the pawl tends to drop to restrain gear 62 but each time the lamp 61 detects a black spot the pawl is kept out of engagement. Thus the platen continues to traverse until a black spot is not detected and a new line is available for printrng.

In order that a line of typing may be ended before the end of a line of type on the record sheet if this be required .by the incoming message and a new line commenced at the normal place, provision is made for the selection of a finger 6 or 22 (FIG. 1) by a carriage return signal and the operation by a rocker 8 corresponding thereto of an electrical contact which controls the cooperating transmitter so as to stop further transmission. A cam (not shown) is provided on the sleeve carrying gear 38 (FIG. 4) which operates a contact when the platen roller has rotated to a position corresponding to commencement of a new line. This contact then restarts the transmitter. If required cams may be provided on the sleeve carrying cam 38 to send an end of line signal to stop the transmitter and a commence line signal to restart it in order to leave a desired margin on the sheet before and after a line of type.

When the end of message signal is received, the machine is allowed to complete one revolution to ensure that printing of all received symbols takes place. When this revolution has been completed, pawl 43 is disengaged from ratchet wheel 42 and a lever (FIG. 5) is operated to disengage dog clutch 59. Clutch 69 then becomes efiective and returns the platen to its original position.

Shaft 40 (FIG 4) through gear 44, pinion 45 and gear 46 (fixed to ratchet wheel 47) drives ratchet wheel 47. Pawl '48 mounted on a plate 52 attached to the left hand gear of differential 39 is at this stage engaged with ratchet wheel 47 and thereby differential 39 is driven to rotate shaft 35 in reverse direction. The sheet 30 is thereupon unwound from platen 29 and when one revolution has been completed suction through pipe 33 is cut off and the sheet is' ejected.

It has been stated above that operation of a contact 14 ('FIG. 1) causes printing to take place. The printing of characters can take place by any desired form of actuation of a printing element. The preferred form is by hydraulic operation of each type element. The hydraulic operation may be electrically controlled as will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8 or may be controlled by replacing contacts 14 (FIG. I) by valves 23 as shown in FIG. 2. A selected pawl then engages a tappet 24 which lifts a piston valve 24' to allow oil or other fluid to flow from pipe 25, through pipe 26 to one of the plungers 27, FIG. 3. Each plunger 27 is connected through a push rod 72 and a knuckle joint 71 (FIG. 4) to a corresponding type element 28. The plungers 27 are normally thrust against adjusters 73 by springs 74. The adjusters are set to give the correct clearances between the type elements and the paper and are then locked by caps 75. The plungers 27 may be of smaller diameters for type elements representing full stop, comma, etc. so that with a smaller type area the paper is not damaged through excessive pressure.

The type elements are housed in a ring 76 carrying an arm 77 with a roller 78 held against a constantly running cam 79 by spring 80. This cam causes an oscillation which permits the type by reason of knuckle joints 71 to follow the platen at the moment of impact and prevents smudging.

FIGS. 7 and 8 show an alternative means of controlling hydraulic operation of a type element. Fluid is supplied to channel 81 in the main casting 82. Each contact 14 (FIG. 1) operates a relay 83 and the armature 84 lifts piston 85 through a rod 86 and opens port 87 to allow fluid to flow through the port -88 to which a pipe is connected to operate the corresponding piston plunger of FIG. 3. When relay 83 is restored spring 89 lowers the piston 85 closing port 87 and opening port 90 to allow fluid to flow back from the port 88 and discharge into channel 91 in the main casting. The valve shown in FIG. 7 has a circular barrel 92 and screwed plugs 93 and 94 and is clamped in position by clamps 95.

While the principles of the invention have been described above in connection with specific embodiments, and particular modifications thereof, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by Way of example and not as a limitation on the scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. Page printing telegraph receiver comprising a single series of equally spaced individually and independently operable printing means each adapted to print a single one of a set of characters each of said characters being difierent, said series being arranged on a helical line along the surface of a cylinder, means for receiving successively signals representing characters to be recorded, means for feeding a record sheet relative to said cylinder so that one dimension of said sheet is parallel to said helical line, means for advancing said record sheet along a path parallel to said helical line through the space between two adjacent printing rmeans for each character received and means for operating in response to a received signal the printing means for the character represented by said signal when the area of the sheet on which said character is to be recorded in its proper succession of characters is opposite to the printing means for that character.

2. Page printing telegraph receiver comprising a single series of equally spaced individually and independently operable printing means each adapted to print a single one of a set of characters, each of said characters being different, said series being arranged on a helical line along the surface of a cylinder, means for wrapping a record sheet around a cylinder coaxial with said first mentioned cylinder with one dimension of said sheet parallel to said helical line, means for advancing said second mentioned cylinder along a path parallel to said helical line, means for receiving code combinations representing characters to be printed, storage means, means for translating a received code combination into actuation of a storage element in said storage means, and means for actuating one of said printing means by said actuated storage element with a delay equal to the time required for advancement of said record sheet from the commencement of said helical line up to the position in said helical line of said printing means.

3. Page printing telegraph receiver as claimed in claim 2 in which said storage means is a drum with means for rotating said drum in synchronism with the rotation of said second mentioned cylinder.

4. Page printing telegraph receiver as claimed in claim 3 in which said drum has mounted thereon storage elements representing each character, the elements representing any character being arranged in a circular line individual to that character, and in which means for actuating said printing means by said storage elements are arranged in a helical line fixed with respect to the axis of said drum.

5. Page printing telegraph receiver as claimed in claim 4 in which the means for actuating any of the storage elements are arranged parallel to the axis of said drum.

6. Page printing telegraph receiver as claimed in claim 5 in which said storage elements are pawls rotatable by said actuating means into operable position and means situated in relation to said pawls immediately before passing the actuating position for resetting into inoperable position any pawl that may ha-ve been actuated.

7. Page printing telegraph receiver as claimed in claim 1 in which said record sheet is wrapped around a cylindrical platen comprising a row of holes in said platen, means for applying suction through said holes to one end of a record sheet in proximity thereto and means for rotating said platen to wrap said sheet therearound.

8. Telegraph apparatus comprising a tape controlled transmitter connected to send code combination of signals to a page printing telegraph receiver as claimed in claim 7 comprising means for keeping said transmitter inoperative whilst said cylindrical platen is being rotated to wrap said sheet around and whilst said platen is being advanced to bring the first line for printing on said sheet under said helical line of printing means, and means controlled by said receiver for thereupon rendering said transmitter operative to transmit signals.

9. Telegraph apparatus as claimed in claim 8 comprising means in said receiver for responding to a carriage return signal combination and for thereupon controlling said transmitter to stop transmission and to start transmission again when the said record sheet is in position to commence a new line of print.

10. Page printing telegraph receiver as claimed in claim 2 in which each of said printing means comprises a type head and hydraulic means for pressing said type head against the paper.

11. Page printing telegraph receiver as claimed in claim 10, including means to actuate said hydraulic means from one of said storage elements, comprising electric contact controlled by said storage elements.

'12. Page printing telegraph receiver as claimed in claim 10, including means to actuate said hydraulic means by mechanical operation under control of a storage element of a hydraulic valve.

13. Telegraph apparatus as claimed in claim 8 comprising means in said receiver for receiving an end of message signal and means operative in response thereto for returning said platen to initial position, for ejecting a record sheet therefrom and for wrapping a new record sheet around said platen. 

